- 25/06/2025
Documentary, Russia's Lost Princesses S01E01
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LearningTranscript
00:0017th of July 1918, these four girls in white dresses were brutally murdered in the bloody climax to the Russian Revolution.
00:10The girls' names may not be remembered, but their alluring mix of beauty and innocence holds an enduring fascination.
00:19They are emblems of a world that vanished forever in the revolution.
00:22In Russia today, the Tsar's four daughters, Olga, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia, have literally become icons and are worshipped as holy martyrs.
00:41The first program in this two-part series will tell their story in their own words.
00:47My whole body shakes. I love him. I want to fling myself at him.
00:53And it will reveal the real girls behind the saintly images.
00:58In 1913, Tsar Nicholas II and his family celebrated 300 years of Romanov rule.
01:24The lavish state occasions of the Tercentenary were designed to show off the enduring power and imperial might of this ancient dynasty.
01:35But at the heart of this virtually medieval monarchy was a surprisingly modern family.
01:42The Tercentenary offered the public a rare glimpse of their royals, and the crowds were captivated by the sight of the Tsar's four daughters.
01:49In their identical white dresses and matching hats, the girls were picture-perfect princesses.
01:58They had this enduring fascination because they are stuck in this time warp, having died young, of innocence, beauty, untainted, unmarried, virginal.
02:10Little was known about them, really.
02:12They were viewed with fascination because they appeared so beautiful, almost like fairy-tale princesses.
02:19I think there's an inherent similarity with Diana being the most photographed princesses of their time.
02:26The most marriageable, attractive, desirable young royal princesses in Europe.
02:31The girls' lives were dominated, and all too often overshadowed, by their mother, the Empress Alexandra.
02:41In the Romanov family drama, it was her formidable character, more than any other, which ultimately sealed her daughter's fates.
02:49Alexandra's story began a world away from the pomp and ceremony of Imperial Russia, in the tiny German duchy of Hesse and by Rhine.
03:00On her maternal side, she boasted impeccable royal credentials.
03:05Her mother was Princess Alice, Queen Victoria's second daughter.
03:09By contrast, her good-looking father, the Grand Duke Louis, came some way down the royal pecking order.
03:16The Hesses were a happy and close-knit family.
03:21But in 1878, they suffered a double tragedy, when Diphtheria killed both Alexandra's little sister, May, and her beloved mother, Alice.
03:32Alexandra was just six at the time, and profoundly traumatised by their deaths.
03:37She was always very shy, which didn't help things.
03:43But the death of her mother and her sister really did have a change in her personality.
03:48And it was the start, really, of this deep introspection.
03:53And in the nursery, she was alone.
03:55She didn't even have her familiar toys around, because they'd been burnt or were away to be disinfected.
04:01So all of that, I mean, there was a huge cloud of mourning over the palace and over her childhood.
04:10In the wake of Alice's untimely death, Alexandra's grandmother, Queen Victoria, stepped into the breach and took a very hands-on role in her grandchildren's upbringing.
04:20With Alice in particular, because she was so young when her mother died, Queen Victoria took her on as her own.
04:28And she really did take on the role of surrogate mother in a very serious and determined manner.
04:36She had the nurse prepare monthly reports on what Alice and the girls were doing.
04:43Queen Victoria would go through all of the points.
04:47She would initial them.
04:48It was a very close, very loving relationship.
04:54Alexandra was raised in her grandmother's image, with the same solidly English tastes and strict Victorian morality.
05:03Alexandra was very English.
05:05I mean, it's often said she was the German woman, but actually her Englishness was her most pronounced sort of characteristic.
05:11She had been brought up in a very English manner.
05:14Queen Victoria, her grandmother, had had a big influence on that.
05:17Alexandra was one of her favourites.
05:19It was very much sort of austere Victorian upbringing.
05:23She had an English nursemaid.
05:25She had an English governess.
05:26She was taught to fold hospital corners, make her own bed.
05:29In 1884, when she was 12 years old, Alexandra had visited St. Petersburg for her elder sister's wedding.
05:39There she met Nicholas, the 16-year-old son and heir of Tsar Alexander III.
05:46Nicholas would one day be absolute ruler of one-sixth of the Earth's surface and the richest monarch in the world.
05:53Other dynasties paled into insignificance next to the Romanovs.
05:59As royal matches went, the Tsar-to-be was the greatest prize going.
06:05Within a few years, the pair were head over heels in love, though neither Alexandra's grandmother nor Nicholas's parents considered it a match made in heaven.
06:15The Queen was very concerned, of course, when Alexandra announced she wanted to marry Niki, the Tsarievich of Russia.
06:24She was terribly worried about Russia, which seemed a very long away place, very alien, very unsettled and almost dangerous throne to occupy.
06:37Neither Marie Fedorovna or her husband Alexander III wanted this marriage to take place.
06:45They seriously did not like anything German.
06:48They didn't like Germany.
06:49They didn't want this modest, shy, awkward German princess marrying the heir to this vast empire.
07:00They wanted a much bigger catch.
07:03And it wasn't just Nicholas's choice of bride that was a cause for concern, but his ability to fill his father's shoes.
07:10Alexander III himself, the father, was a bear-like figure with a huge beard down to here, immensely strong.
07:19He could tear a pack of cards like that.
07:23Alexander III was the true autocrat.
07:26He was a giant of a man at six foot three.
07:28He knew his will.
07:29He was decisive.
07:30He knew how to command his ministers.
07:31And he looked upon Nicholas, his son, whom he called Gurley, as a bit of a lost cause, really, insofar as the succession was concerned.
07:46Count Vitter, who was then the Minister of Finance, suggested that Nicholas might be instructed in the means of statehood.
07:53And Alexander replied, haven't you noticed?
07:55Nick is a bit of a dunce.
07:57And the future Tsar did little to confound his father's fears.
08:02The horseplay of his youth was probably quite commonplace amongst the aristocracy.
08:07But I'm slightly shocked to read in his diary in 1894, when he was, what, 25, 26 and about to ascend the throne,
08:15that he just spent the day in a giant chestnut fight in the park with Prince George of Greece.
08:20And, in fact, later on in the diary, maybe he's already on the throne,
08:25he writes about a similar fight with pine cones.
08:28So this is a man who wasn't taking the responsibilities of learning kingship particularly seriously.
08:37And the challenges Nicholas would face upon becoming Tsar were immense.
08:45At the end of the 19th century, Russia was a vast empire caught between the medieval and the modern.
08:51Serfdom had been abolished 30 years earlier, but most Russians continued to work the land and live in grinding poverty.
09:00At the same time, rapid industrialization was transforming the country,
09:07though the imperial regime seemed unable to keep up with the dizzying pace of change.
09:12Whilst the might of Europe's other monarchies had waned,
09:17Nicholas would inherit the same absolute power as every Tsar had wielded for the past 300 years.
09:25And in the autumn of 1894, the Tsar-in-waiting found himself put to the test far sooner than expected.
09:33Whilst visiting his new fiancée in Germany, Nicholas was suddenly summoned home to his father's sickbed.
09:39Alexander had been taken ill with the disease of the kidneys and died on the 20th of October, leaving his son utterly distraught.
09:49He is on record as saying, long before he became Tsar,
09:54I dread the day when this will have to happen.
09:57But nobody thought it would happen as soon as it did.
10:00I mean, the father was 49, so if he'd lived to be 69, that was 20 years later.
10:05So he was caught on the hop and horrified with the responsibility that was on his shoulders.
10:12When Alexander died, Nicholas burst into tears and said,
10:15I don't want to be king at Tsar, I can't.
10:19I don't even know how to talk to the ministers.
10:21Just a week after he buried his father, Nicholas married Alexandra in a lavish ceremony at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
10:37Faced with the horror of becoming Tsar, Nicholas's one consolation was his new wife.
10:43The pair wrote to each other in English, their best common language.
10:47My own precious little Sonny, my love for you is unspeakable.
10:53It fills me utterly and makes the darkness of these days bright.
10:58And his bride was also smitten.
11:01Never did I believe there could be such utter happiness in this world,
11:06such a feeling of unity between two mortal beings.
11:11I love you.
11:12Those three words have my life in them.
11:15It was lucky she was so in love, because far from home at a foreign court,
11:21she found little comfort other than in Nicholas's arms.
11:26Alexandra had a pretty tough time when she first arrived at the Russian imperial court.
11:31For one thing, one has to remember that it happened far more quickly than she had anticipated or desired.
11:37Her hope was, and indeed, Nicholas's expectation was, that she would learn Russian.
11:45She'd learn about Russian orthodoxy.
11:47She would learn how the court worked.
11:49In fact, what happened was Nicholas is catapulted onto the throne.
11:53Alex is called to Russia.
11:55They marry.
11:56And there's no preparation.
11:58She only knows a little bit of Russian when she arrives.
12:07Alexandra was no stranger to the world of royalty.
12:10But even being a granddaughter of Queen Victoria was no preparation for the imperial court.
12:16They were much grander than any other court in Europe.
12:23And whenever there was a state occasion, for example, there would be more food, more people invited, more servants, more style.
12:33Everything was very exaggerated.
12:35Queen Victoria formed the impression in the 1880s, 1890s, that the Russians were really a bit much.
12:48In the great procession, the most impressive of all court ceremonies, the entire imperial family and their leading courtiers processed in strict order of precedence through the vast halls of the Winter Palace,
13:01each one packed with hundreds of civil servants, military officials, and other guests.
13:11One lucky invitee remarked, there was hardly elbow room, and to enjoy oneself was quite out of the question.
13:23The Russian court was incredibly opulent.
13:27The protocol, the ceremonial, was rigid, rigid, rigid.
13:36There were rules, and rules were not bent.
13:40These rules were not broken.
13:42If they were, you paid the price.
13:46In this world of unimaginable excess and unbearable rigmarole, Alexandra completely lost her bearings.
13:54She came from a very modest little German backwater, and here she is in the centre of St. Petersburg society, and she couldn't cope with it.
14:07She was the kind of person who, if she got something wrong, would be mortified.
14:10And her remedy was to run away, to have a headache, and retire to her bedroom.
14:19To make matters worse, Nicholas's mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodrovna, had set her daughter-in-law a daunting example to live up to.
14:28For Alexandra, her glamorous, vivacious, highly sociable mother-in-law, was a constant reminder of everything she was not.
14:38The Dowager's view was that an empress had to be visible.
14:43That was her job.
14:44She should be out there in society, shaking hands, smiling, at receptions and balls, and doing all the things empresses of Russia did,
14:54which she, of course, had done with supreme confidence.
14:57But Alexandra was not like Maria Feodrovna, and the empress was very annoyed and disgruntled that her daughter-in-law was not, as she saw it, fulfilling her proper function.
15:09What she fails to see is that, in marrying Nicholas, she hasn't just married the man, she's married the institution.
15:26And this is one enormous institution.
15:32From what she wore to the way she spoke, Alexandra could do nothing right.
15:37Her Russian was almost non-existent, and her French, the official language of the court, did not pass muster either.
15:45The Russian court is totally unimpressed with Alexandra.
15:52They talk, and they laugh, and they send her up behind her back.
15:58She is regarded as gauche, as awkward, as badly dressed.
16:04Apparently, she speaks French with a bad accent.
16:08This is somebody who isn't well-liked at all, and Alexandra doesn't go out of her way to try and change that.
16:16She retreats even more.
16:18She is shy.
16:19She is awkward.
16:21And she doesn't fulfil her role as empress.
16:24Nicholas and Alexandra found sanctuary from the demands of court life at Zarsko Salo, a series of royal residences secluded in beautiful parkland, which lay 15 miles south of the capital.
16:41This imperial haven had been a favourite of Catherine the Great, who had added the Chinese pagodas and bridges, which gave the place the air of an enchanted fairyland.
16:56Zarsko Salo was a complex of palaces, and it had begun in the 18th century as a sort of copy of Versailles, and was similar in many ways.
17:10It was a retreat where they could live away from the capital, untroubled by their ministers and by the problems of state.
17:18I think they envisioned life as a sort of country squires.
17:24They wanted to live away from society.
17:27They didn't want to move in elite society.
17:29They wanted to live in a sort of cocoon, a bubble, if you will.
17:34For the newlyweds, the Alexander Palace represented a break with the past and the beginning of a new chapter in imperial life.
17:42Alexander rejected the guilt and grandeur of other imperial palaces in favour of a far more homely look.
17:52At Zarsko Salo, they didn't have imperial furniture.
17:56They bought directly import from Maples, the sort of middle-class store of London.
18:02And that was very much the sort of cosy domestic environment they wanted.
18:06They called each other hubby and wifey, in that sort of domestic language of Victorian sensibility.
18:18Every room was stuffed with favourite trinkets.
18:21Every surface covered with family photographs.
18:24And examples of Alexandra's personal emblem, the owl, were to be spotted everywhere.
18:29People thought the Alexander Palace interiors were very, rather, down market for an empress.
18:38They were terribly modest and bourgeois.
18:41There was no grandeur about them.
18:42And this was a beautiful, classical building.
18:47And yet its interiors were like, in some people's eyes, a sort of second-rate hotel.
18:52The cosiness of Nicholas and Alexandra's domestic arrangements reflected their deep emotional and physical bond.
19:05The pair had eyes only for each other.
19:09Theirs was a very tight, close, passionate, codependent relationship.
19:16Alexandra could not bear it when Nicholas went away on official business.
19:20She didn't like him being out of her sight.
19:24She had this intense need for his love and his support.
19:28And equally, he had for hers.
19:31However overwhelming their private passions,
19:34the Tsar and Tsarina could not completely evade their public duties.
19:39In May 1896, Nicholas's coronation took place in Moscow.
19:50The eyes of the world were on the new Tsar and Tsarina.
20:00Not only had vast crowds gathered for the celebrations,
20:04but this was one of the very first public occasions to be filmed.
20:08The hundreds of thousands of ordinary Russians who lined the streets
20:19reinforced Nicholas's faith in an ancient and enduring bond between the Tsar and his people.
20:25Nicholas believes in that divine, mystical link between Tsar and people.
20:32That he ruled only in accordance with his conscience before God
20:36and that he need not take account of public opinion.
20:40He took it for granted that the people revered him, worshipped him as a god.
20:45And this was part of Tsarism's ideology going back to medieval times.
20:54But a few days after the coronation,
20:57a tragedy unfolded that called into question this relationship
21:00and suggested that Nicholas, in fact, took not just the loyalty,
21:04but the lives of his people for granted.
21:07On the 18th of May, half a million people turned out at a coronation fair
21:14held at Kadinka Field in the suburbs of Moscow.
21:20Souvenir tankards and biscuits were to be handed out to the crowds,
21:24but when a rumour went round that there would not be enough for everyone,
21:27there was a stampede.
21:28By the end of the day, 1400 were dead, 600 were wounded.
21:40That evening, Nicholas goes to a ball at a French embassy.
21:45During the coronation, the usual festivities, banquets, balls continue,
21:50and the whole thing sort of hushed up.
21:54It caused damage.
21:56It was a very good example of Nicholas's inability to, you know,
22:00give out a good impression.
22:02And in later years, Nicholas would look back on that incident as a bad omen.
22:08With his coronation out of the way,
22:11Nicholas was delighted that life could return to normal.
22:14As he wrote in his diary,
22:16I woke with the wonderful realisation that everything is over
22:20and that it is now possible to live for oneself,
22:24quietly and peacefully.
22:26Alexandra was as relieved as her husband to withdraw from public view
22:30and saw no need to indulge her subjects with the usual royal charm offensives.
22:37She took the view that as an empress of Russia,
22:41she didn't need to win people's respect.
22:44And in fact, Queen Victoria, her grandmother,
22:46learning of her problems did write to her,
22:49suggesting in her wisdom that she might help her earn the love and respect of her citizens.
22:58And Alexandra wrote back,
22:59You're mistaken, Grandma.
23:01This is Russia, not England.
23:04In Russia, the people worship their tsars as divine beings,
23:10and we don't need to earn their love and respect.
23:13And she took the same view of St. Petersburg society.
23:17She thought, as did Nicholas, that public opinion counted for nothing.
23:21Instead, the couple's attention was focused much closer to home.
23:26On the 15th of November, 1895, Alexandra had given birth to their first child, Olga.
23:35Two years later, another daughter, Tatiana, was born.
23:39And two years after that, a third daughter, Maria, arrived.
23:44Far from subscribing to Victorian stereotype
23:47and leaving their offspring to be brought up by maids and governesses,
23:51the emperor and empress were determined to raise their children themselves.
23:57Alexandra had a very clear plan in her mind of what family life was going to be.
24:02Family life was going to be private, mothering with her, controlling everything,
24:07right from the moment her children were born, which meant she breastfed them,
24:11which was unheard of in Russian aristocratic circles.
24:15People were appalled when they discovered that the empress of Russia
24:19was breastfeeding her children.
24:22But any criticism fell on deaf ears.
24:25The empress knew best how to raise her girls.
24:29Alexandra always liked to say and remind Nicholas
24:32that it was she who wore the trousers.
24:34And I think she was definitely the sort of the boss of that relationship
24:41and the boss of that family.
24:43In the royal nursery, Alexandra disregarded the eye-watering wealth of the Romanovs
24:49and displayed a very unimperial zeal for economising.
24:54She saw to it that her girls had the same modest,
24:57relatively spartan upbringing as she had had.
25:00They tidied their rooms, they made their beds.
25:04It was early to bed, plain nursery food, cold bars in the morning.
25:08She never for a moment spoilt her four daughters.
25:12They had hand-me-downs each, passed on her clothes to the next one,
25:17and their accounts of having frocks let out and skirts let down.
25:21They had very modest amounts of pocket money.
25:23They lived very simple and un-ostentatious lives.
25:29Nowhere is the Romanovs' surprisingly ordinary and down-to-earth lifestyle
25:34more apparent than in their remarkable private family photographs,
25:38which capture royalty at its most relaxed.
25:43These were probably the most photographed royal princesses in history,
25:48even more so than the British royals who took an awful lot of pictures of themselves
25:52because they all had box brownie cameras
25:54and they were constantly snapping each other.
25:59I think the wonderful fascination about those girls
26:02is you see them not just as royal princesses,
26:06you see them as an informal family group,
26:09loving, laughing, sharing things,
26:12making pratfalls in the sand.
26:14You see them as normal human beings.
26:18Although Nicholas and Alexandra were delighted with their little princesses,
26:23there was no escaping the fact that the Tsarina had so far failed
26:27in her most crucial duty as empress,
26:30providing her husband with a son and successor.
26:35The Romanov rules of succession are the strictest in Europe
26:38in terms of insisting on the eldest son taking over
26:42and not allowing any choice in the matter.
26:45So there was huge pressure on Alexandra to bear a son.
26:51Even within the imperial family,
26:54great rejoicing when Olga, the oldest daughter, was born.
26:58Not quite so delighted when second child Tatiana is a daughter.
27:04The Tsarina's sisters are saying,
27:07oh, God forbid us for not being thrilled to bits with this baby,
27:12but it's another daughter.
27:13On 5th June 1901, Alexandra gave birth to her fourth child,
27:23but instead of the longed-for son and heir,
27:26it was another daughter, Anastasia.
27:29In the Tsarina's mind,
27:31one little girl seemed to be as good as another,
27:33and she treated her daughters more as a homogenous mass
27:37than as four distinct characters.
27:40Their mother split them into two groups,
27:43the big pair and the little pair,
27:45and often didn't refer to the girls by their names individually.
27:49And she tended to dress them in these pairs.
27:53Sometimes all four girls wore the same clothes.
27:56You could see endless photographs of them,
27:59all in a line in the same white frocks and big hats.
28:03And it kind of emphasised this sense of them being just anonymous,
28:08not having any individual personalities of their own.
28:12This group mentality was even reinforced by the girls.
28:23They referred to themselves as Otma,
28:26from the initial letters of their four names,
28:28Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia.
28:33But behind the convenient acronym and the identical outfits,
28:39four very different personalities were taking shape.
28:42Olga was the most sensitive of the four daughters.
28:47She was very independent.
28:49She was very strong-minded.
28:52Shy, compassionate, had a temper.
28:57Olga was temperamental.
28:58She had moods and really was,
29:01I think of all the girls, the one who answered back
29:03and could be quite hard to handle.
29:08I always see Tatiana as a beautiful enigma.
29:12She was sphinx-like in her beauty,
29:14with those gorgeous aristocratic features.
29:18But there was something very closed off about her.
29:20She was very reserved like her mother,
29:22very dutiful,
29:23very good at organising and getting things done,
29:26so much so that her sisters found her bossy
29:29and called her the governess.
29:31Then there was Maria and her sisters used to be slightly cruel to her
29:38and call her Fat Little Bow Wow.
29:41But she had a wonderful generosity of spirit that was quite her own.
29:45In fact, at one point, Nicholas said of her
29:47that he was worried she was almost too perfect,
29:50so he liked to be told when she actually was naughty.
29:53And Anastasia, she was the mischievous one.
29:58She was the one that would play the prank.
30:00She was the one that would stick her tongue out behind people's backs.
30:04She was the tomboy, really.
30:05But by 1904, the Romanovs' treasured family life
30:12looked to the outside world like an abject failure.
30:17As the American magazine Bystander commented,
30:21there are four of these little girls.
30:24They are bright, intelligent children,
30:26but nobody in Russia wants them,
30:29unless it be their parents.
30:30On July the 30th, 1904,
30:38Nicholas and Alexandra's luck finally seemed to change.
30:45That afternoon, the cannon of the Peter and Paul fortress
30:49fired a 301-gun salute
30:52to announce the birth of a son and heir, Alexei.
30:57The capital streets erupted in celebrations,
31:00and the sound of church bells was almost deafening.
31:08But the imperial couple's joy was very short-lived.
31:14Almost immediately after his birth,
31:17there was bleeding from Alexei's navel,
31:20and his mother's worst nightmare began to unfold
31:23before her very eyes.
31:24Shortly after Alexei's birth,
31:27she took one of her ladies aside,
31:30absolutely distraught and weeping,
31:32and she said to her,
31:34you don't know how much I have been praying
31:37that our child would not have our inherited curse.
31:42That's what she called it.
31:43She had clearly, throughout that pregnancy,
31:46been longing for a son,
31:48yet dreading thought
31:50that this boy she'd been waiting for
31:52for nearly 10 years
31:54might have haemophilia.
31:58The Tsarina had inherited haemophilia
32:00from her mother, Princess Alice,
32:03who in turn had inherited it
32:04from her mother, Queen Victoria.
32:06They didn't know why it happened,
32:09they couldn't test blood for it,
32:11they had no way of confirming a diagnosis,
32:14and most critically of all,
32:15they didn't have any way to treat it.
32:17It was regarded as an early death sentence.
32:20Up until about 1950,
32:23the mean age of death
32:24of a young man with severe haemophilia
32:27was 16.
32:28What makes it even more difficult
32:31for Alexandra to cope with
32:32is that nobody can know
32:35that the boy suffers from haemophilia.
32:39It would have meant
32:40that this is a boy with bad blood.
32:42This was not going to redound
32:44to Alexandra's credit
32:45in any way, shape, or form,
32:47and they could not have
32:49an imperfect heir on the throne.
32:52It reflected on the dynasty,
32:55and it was an illoman.
33:02Alexandra would forever live
33:05in the shadow of her son's illness,
33:07but Alexei's birth also transformed
33:09the lives of his four sisters.
33:14Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia
33:17lost their places in the family hierarchy.
33:20From now on,
33:21they would always take second place
33:23to their little brother.
33:27The whole dynamic of the Romanov family changed
33:30the minute Alexei was born,
33:32because suddenly those four girls
33:34very much became secondary
33:37to a whole focus
33:40on that precious, frail, haemophiliac child
33:44of the emphasis of everyone's time and attention.
33:48And the girls immediately,
33:50from a very young age,
33:51are sucked into this sense
33:53of caring and protecting
33:55and cocooning Alexei.
33:57Whilst Alexandra had insisted
34:12that her daughters be treated
34:13as ordinary girls
34:14rather than imperial princesses,
34:16it was a very different matter
34:18when it came to her precious son.
34:20Alexei becomes incredibly precocious.
34:31He's spoiled incredibly
34:34by both his parents.
34:36Well, in fact,
34:37by his sisters too.
34:39And I suppose it is...
34:42Alexandra, of course,
34:44is going to do everything she possibly can.
34:47She's going to give in every way
34:49to this boy.
34:51You know, he's baby.
34:52He's known as baby.
34:54Even when he's 12 years old,
34:57he's babykins.
34:58You know, this is...
35:00This is a little treasure
35:02that has to be kept in cotton wool.
35:08Alexei's haemophilia meant
35:10that any knock or bump
35:11could trigger a potentially fatal bleed.
35:15Here, as his playmates
35:16launch themselves into the water,
35:18he is forced to watch
35:19from the safety of the pier.
35:23To make up for all the restrictions
35:25placed on him,
35:26the little Czarevich
35:28was frequently allowed
35:29to get away with murder.
35:35He got away with
35:37some absolutely appalling
35:39bad behaviour,
35:39which a normal child,
35:41a normal healthy child,
35:43would never have been allowed
35:44to get away with.
35:45He would be very peremptory.
35:47He would like people
35:48kissing his hand
35:49and bowing and scraping to him
35:50when he was a little boy.
35:52And especially on board
35:53the Imperial yacht,
35:54the Stendart,
35:55he sometimes had a penchant
35:57for commanding that the band
35:59play for him
35:59at unsociable hours.
36:01And there were people
36:02in the entourage
36:03who actually really
36:05didn't like Alexei.
36:06They thought she was
36:07a dreadful spoil brat.
36:10Here, a lady makes the mistake
36:12of turning her back
36:14on the heir to the throne
36:15and is rewarded
36:16with a vigorous shove
36:17to the bottom.
36:19And here, Alexei,
36:21standing third from the right,
36:23slaps his companion
36:25in the face.
36:28He's very aware
36:29from an early age.
36:30He's the important one.
36:31He can be very dismissive
36:32of his sisters
36:33who adore him,
36:34but he knows
36:35he's going to be the Tsar.
36:36After Alexei's birth,
36:39his parents guarded
36:40their family's privacy
36:42more fiercely than ever,
36:44determined that his haemophilia
36:45should remain
36:46an absolute secret.
36:48And in 1905,
36:51the year after his birth,
36:52a new crisis
36:53drove the family
36:54even closer together
36:56and isolated them
36:57still further
36:58from the outside world.
36:59On Sunday,
37:03the 9th of January,
37:04a crowd in St. Petersburg
37:05marched on the Winter Palace.
37:08They were protesting
37:08against Russia's
37:09disastrous war with Japan,
37:12against their terrible
37:13working conditions
37:14and against
37:15the autocratic regime's
37:16failure to offer
37:17any kind of reform.
37:22The protesters hoped
37:23to present their petition
37:24to the Tsar,
37:25but instead,
37:27troops outside the palace
37:28fired on them.
37:29Killing 200
37:30and wounding
37:32a further 800.
37:35I think we can say
37:36that Bloody Sunday,
37:37the massacre
37:37of protesting workers
37:40and women and children
37:41was the end
37:43of the popular myth
37:44of the benevolent Tsar.
37:46People no longer believe
37:48that the Tsar
37:49was governing
37:49in their interests.
37:52Nicholas was not
37:53in St. Petersburg
37:54that Sunday.
37:55Instead,
37:56as he so often did,
37:58he was spending
37:58the weekend
37:59with his family
38:00at the Alexander Palace.
38:03Amidst the peace
38:04and tranquility
38:04of his private retreat,
38:06he was virtually oblivious
38:08to the seriousness
38:09of events unfolding
38:10in his capital
38:11just 15 miles away.
38:13when Bolegan,
38:16the minister of interior,
38:18suggested to him
38:19that some political concessions
38:20might be required,
38:22Nicholas said to him,
38:24my God, man,
38:25anyone would think
38:25you're afraid
38:26the revolution
38:27will break out,
38:28to which Bolegan replied,
38:30your majesty,
38:31the revolution
38:31has already begun.
38:32he didn't ever really grasp
38:43the true nature
38:44of the situation.
38:45So if you look
38:46at his diary entries
38:47for 1905,
38:48for example,
38:49I mean,
38:49it's full of the usual
38:50stuff about,
38:51you know,
38:52how many deer
38:54he shot at hunting,
38:55who was often in tea,
38:58games of dominoes,
38:59the reading
39:00on the barometer,
39:01et cetera, et cetera,
39:02he seems completely removed
39:04from our political power
39:06and that's very much
39:07part of the problem.
39:10Bloody Sunday,
39:11as it became known,
39:13was only the beginning
39:14of a year
39:15of revolutionary upheaval
39:16and as the safety
39:18of the imperial family
39:19was called into question,
39:21their security
39:21was dramatically increased.
39:24The Tsarina
39:26was terrified
39:26that Nicholas
39:27might be killed
39:28or Alexei kidnapped
39:30and she became obsessed
39:31with keeping her family
39:32out of harm's way.
39:34Their mother's
39:35siege mentality
39:36had a profound impact
39:38on her daughters.
39:41When they travelled
39:42on the imperial train,
39:43for example,
39:44she was once described
39:45as insisting
39:46all the blinds
39:47be pulled down
39:48and there are
39:48the little children
39:49trying to peep out
39:51at this extraordinary
39:52world outside
39:52that they didn't know
39:54that they had
39:54so little experience of
39:57and she even forbade
39:58Nicholas from going
39:59too close
40:00to the train windows.
40:01She didn't want people
40:02to see into
40:04their privacy,
40:05into their little
40:06enclosed world.
40:14After 1905,
40:15the imperial children
40:16rarely appeared in public.
40:18They were most likely
40:19to be spotted
40:20through the fence
40:20of the Alexander Park,
40:22playing in the palace grounds
40:23where they had
40:24their own little house
40:25on what was known
40:26as Children's Island.
40:30It was in the park
40:31that Alexei,
40:32then aged three,
40:34had his worst accident yet
40:35when he fell
40:37and hurt his leg.
40:39He was in excruciating pain
40:41and the doctors
40:42seemed unable to help.
40:45In desperation,
40:46the Tsarina turned
40:47to a mystical healer,
40:49Grigori Rasputin,
40:50who she had met
40:51a couple of years earlier.
40:54Rasputin had already
40:56sort of made a name
40:57for himself
40:58as a mystic
40:59and in the high society
41:02circles of St. Petersburg
41:03at that time,
41:05there was a search
41:06for sort of mystical men,
41:07for some sort of spirituality.
41:09There were seances.
41:10Rasputin,
41:11with his supernatural powers,
41:12his eyes,
41:15his charisma undoubtedly
41:17had a hold
41:18over aristocratic ladies
41:20and indeed
41:21over some high churchmen
41:23who recommended
41:24Rasputin
41:26to the Tsarina
41:27and she genuinely believes
41:29that he has
41:30some sort of
41:31mystical ability
41:32to cure
41:34or at least relieve
41:35the suffering
41:36of her son.
41:38Rasputin
41:39was a wandering pilgrim
41:41from Siberia
41:41who came to St. Petersburg
41:43in 1903
41:44and gained a reputation
41:46for his mystical powers.
41:49When he was first summoned
41:50to Alexei's sickbed,
41:52he simply prayed
41:53for the boy
41:53and reassured him
41:55that his pain
41:55would go away
41:56and the next morning
41:57his fever had gone
41:59and the swelling
42:00in his leg
42:01had also disappeared.
42:03The encounter
42:04seemed to confirm
42:05Rasputin's remarkable
42:06abilities
42:06to ease both
42:08Alexei's suffering
42:09and the Tsarina's
42:11frayed nerves.
42:12It is well known
42:14that particularly
42:15with pain
42:16and distress
42:16and the interplay
42:18of pain and distress
42:19in the child
42:20with distress
42:21and emotional pain
42:22in the mother
42:22that for someone
42:25to enter the situation
42:27and express
42:28in terms of
42:29great confidence
42:30that everything
42:32will be all right
42:33is sometimes
42:34extremely effective.
42:36It works.
42:36I think Alexandra
42:40saw in Rasputin
42:42elements of what
42:43her grandmother
42:43saw in John Brown
42:44the kind of noble savage.
42:46There was a brutal,
42:48rough, crude simplicity
42:50about Rasputin
42:52that there was
42:52in John Brown.
42:53He had this
42:54peasant understanding
42:56about life
42:57and belief
42:58in a way
42:59that was untrammeled
43:01by the sophistication
43:02of the world
43:03of St Petersburg.
43:04she saw in him
43:06someone sent by God
43:08to help them
43:09to save Alexei
43:10to keep her boy alive.
43:15But Alexandra
43:16prided herself
43:17on her strict
43:18Victorian morals
43:19and she knew
43:20that the family's
43:21relationship
43:22with Rasputin
43:23was fraught
43:23with danger.
43:25For a start
43:26his manners
43:27were notoriously bad.
43:29He was often drunk
43:30and ate everything
43:31even soup
43:32with his hands
43:33and worse than that
43:35he was known
43:36to visit prostitutes
43:37and to have had affairs
43:38with many of his
43:39female followers.
43:42It was not a reputation
43:44that sat easily
43:45with the imperial family's
43:47wholesome image
43:48so the Tsarina
43:50drilled her daughters
43:51never to mention
43:52his name in public.
43:55Alexandra was very aware
43:57of the gossip
43:57and scandal
43:58and innuendo
43:59surrounding Rasputin
44:01and his
44:02bad reputation
44:04and she did not
44:05want that
44:06to attach
44:07to the family
44:07or to the girls.
44:09They kept his visits
44:10private,
44:11they didn't discuss
44:12them with other people
44:12and Alexandra
44:14instructed her daughters
44:15never to discuss
44:17Rasputin
44:18with others.
44:18He was their friend,
44:20their family confidant
44:21and it stayed
44:23within the family.
44:31In 1909
44:32the four daughters
44:33enjoyed a brief respite
44:34from the family's
44:35self-imposed retreat
44:36at the Alexandra Palace.
44:40That summer
44:41Nicholas took his family
44:43to Britain
44:43to visit King Edward VII
44:45and their other
44:46royal relations
44:47during the Cow's
44:48sailing regatta.
44:52Nicholas and the future
44:54George V's mothers
44:55were sisters
44:56making the pair
44:57first cousins
44:58and a striking
45:00family resemblance
45:01was clear.
45:03But this was not
45:04the average family holiday
45:05and even well beyond
45:07the borders of his empire
45:08the Tsar had to remain
45:10vigilant to the threat.
45:11of assassination.
45:14The British was
45:15and in fact
45:15the British aristocracy
45:17were absolutely horrified
45:18at the amount of security
45:19required to protect
45:21the Tsar of Russia
45:22but there were so many
45:23threats against him.
45:25Even extremist groups
45:27in Britain
45:27that they didn't actually
45:29stay on land
45:31they stayed on their yacht
45:32moored off cows.
45:35The future Edward VIII
45:36who was quite a young man
45:38at the time
45:39and was appointed to escort
45:41his royal cousins around
45:43was absolutely horrified
45:44at the levels of security
45:46said it wasn't worth
45:47being a prince for.
45:49But for the girls
45:50the Isle of Wight
45:51provided a brief taste
45:53of the kind of freedom
45:54they would never be allowed
45:55within Russia.
45:56And it was for the girls
45:59like being let out of jail.
46:00This was a whole new world.
46:03This outside life
46:05as they later referred to it
46:07that they had had
46:08no experience of.
46:10It was extraordinary.
46:11All of the children
46:13came ashore
46:14to go shopping
46:15in West Cowes
46:16and look around the shops
46:18but particularly
46:19Olga and Tatiana
46:20with their little bit
46:20of pocket money
46:21going around the shops
46:22and buying postcards
46:23even of their own parents
46:25that were on sale in cows.
46:27It was such a revelation
46:28for those children
46:29to be allowed out.
46:32There is a delightful story
46:34of the two elder girls
46:36Olga and Tatiana
46:37escaping.
46:39Not literally
46:40because their guards
46:41were behind them
46:42but they had some time off
46:44and they did things
46:45like they bought tickets
46:46for the ferry
46:46for themselves
46:47which was great
46:48they'd never done that before.
46:49Other people would deal
46:50with money
46:50or there would be
46:51no money anywhere.
46:52They couldn't keep it up
46:53for very long
46:54because people began
46:55to realise
46:55who are these
46:56young ladies
46:58walking around
46:59who look very pretty
47:00and like one another.
47:01Oh, Leather's R's daughters.
47:03They must have rather
47:04missed it when they came back
47:05but I think it was
47:06a highlight for them
47:08and does demonstrate
47:10how constrained
47:12their lives were
47:13normally.
47:16The trip to cows
47:17was the last time
47:19the two royal families
47:20would meet.
47:21From the glitz
47:22and glamour
47:22of Edwardian England
47:23the girls returned
47:25to a life in Russia
47:26that was becoming
47:27ever more suffocating
47:28and a childhood
47:29that was now blighted
47:31both by Alexei's
47:32and their mother's
47:33failing health.
47:35Alexandra had suffered
47:36from agonising sciatica
47:38pain in the lower back
47:40since she was a teenager
47:41and five pregnancies
47:43in quick succession
47:44had left her
47:45a physical wreck.
47:46When she returned
47:47home from cows
47:48she was suffering
47:49from extreme exhaustion.
47:51From photographs
47:52of Alexandra
47:53she so often
47:54seems to be
47:55either lying down
47:57or on her sofa
47:58in her bedroom
48:00in a wheelchair
48:00rarely moving around.
48:04She's basically
48:06an invalid.
48:09She suffered
48:10from palpitations
48:12she was convinced
48:13she had an enlarged
48:14heart
48:15she had ear problems
48:16otitis
48:17she had migraines
48:18she had headaches
48:19she suffered
48:20from swollen legs
48:21from bouts
48:23of extreme exhaustion.
48:25It wasn't just
48:26a matter of her
48:27physical ailments
48:28that incapacitated her
48:29it was the huge
48:31and constant
48:32mental strain
48:33first of all
48:34worrying that her husband
48:35might be murdered
48:36or assassinated
48:37secondly
48:38that her son
48:39could die
48:40this longed for
48:41child could die.
48:48But the Tsarina's
48:49numerous detractors
48:50put her ill health
48:51down more to
48:52hypochondria
48:53and hysteria
48:54than any genuine
48:55ailment.
48:57There was a kind
48:59of total
49:00selfishness there
49:01she was very
49:02self-absorbed
49:03when it came
49:04to these illnesses
49:05you know
49:06the sciatica
49:07okay fine
49:08the enlarged heart
49:09well alright
49:10she'd have had
49:11some problems
49:12there perhaps
49:12but there was
49:13an awful lot
49:14that was psychosomatic
49:15there was an awful
49:16lot there
49:17that somebody
49:19if they'd been
49:19brave enough
49:20might have said
49:22think about
49:22your husband
49:23think about
49:24your children
49:24stop thinking
49:25about yourself.
49:27although Alexandra
49:30and her daughters
49:31shared a house
49:32when their mother's
49:33health was at its worst
49:35the girls scarcely
49:36got to see her
49:37the Tsarina
49:38shut herself away
49:39in her room
49:40and refused
49:41either to come out
49:42or to allow
49:43her daughters in
49:44she's not there
49:48as the mother
49:49that she should be
49:50the girls
49:53constantly make
49:54reference
49:55in their letters
49:56it's almost
49:57a monotonous
49:58painful litany
50:00about
50:00what a shame
50:02Mama is at her bed
50:03Mama came down
50:05very briefly
50:06she talked to her bed
50:07Mama was too tired
50:09to attend this
50:10you know
50:11it's a constant
50:12refrain
50:13through the lives
50:14of these girls
50:15the girls
50:18one form of communication
50:20with their absent mother
50:21were plaintive notes
50:23written in their
50:24imperfect English
50:2513 year old
50:26Olga
50:27was clearly missing
50:28Alexandra
50:29so sorry
50:30that never see you alone
50:32Mama
50:33and dear
50:33cannot talk
50:34so she tried to write to you
50:36what could cause better say
50:37and so was her
50:4011 year old sister
50:41Tatiana
50:42I hope you want me
50:44to be very tired
50:45and that you can't
50:46get up for dinner
50:47I'm always so awfully
50:49sorry when you are tired
50:50and when you can't
50:51get up
50:52but if her children
50:53were seeking comfort
50:54or reassurance
50:55they were in short supply
50:57instead their mother
50:59used the excuse
51:00of her ill health
51:00to keep her daughters
51:01firmly under the thumb
51:03try to be as good
51:05as you can
51:06and not cause me worries
51:07then I will be content
51:09be an example
51:10of what a good
51:11little obedient
51:12girlie ought to be
51:13learn to make
51:14others happy
51:15think of yourself
51:16last of all
51:17she kind of
51:19in a way
51:20manipulated the girls
51:22with her ill health
51:23because they couldn't
51:24distress Mama
51:25Mama
51:26Mama wasn't feeling well
51:27they couldn't upset her
51:29so therefore
51:29they had to be good
51:30and do what Mama wanted
51:32and it was a way
51:34of kind of
51:34keeping them down
51:35Alexandra made sure
51:38her daughters
51:39always knew
51:40just how ill she was
51:41she devised a code
51:43for her heart pain
51:44rating it on a scale
51:46of 1
51:46the mildest
51:47to 3
51:48the most severe
51:49and the girls
51:51were all well aware
51:52of how the code worked
51:53I'm so sorry
51:55that your heart
51:55is number 2
51:56I'm so sorry
51:57not to see you today
51:58but certainly
51:59it's better for you
52:00to rest
52:01thousand kisses
52:02from your own
52:03loving Maria
52:03she would write
52:05a letter to the girls
52:06saying oh my heart's
52:07number 2 today
52:08they would creep around
52:08to be quiet
52:09and be very solicitous
52:11and they were very aware
52:12all the time
52:13that Mama's heart
52:15troubled her
52:15and that if it was
52:17number 3
52:17they really had to
52:19keep the lid
52:20on any demands
52:21they made on her
52:24Alexandra was so
52:25absorbed with her
52:26own ill health
52:27and that of Alexei
52:28that she was unable
52:29or unwilling
52:31to provide the
52:31emotional support
52:32and motherly advice
52:34her daughters so
52:34craved
52:36so the girls turned
52:37instead
52:38to one of the
52:39very few people
52:40who had managed
52:41to breach the family's
52:42strict defences
52:43and grow genuinely
52:44close to them
52:46Rasputin
52:47I think it's
52:48incredible the degree
52:49to which Rasputin
52:51was taken into
52:51the heart
52:52of the royal family
52:53and it happened
52:54relatively quickly
52:55they were first
52:55introduced in 1905
52:57and it doesn't
52:58take that long
52:59before Alexandra
53:01is literally
53:01bringing Rasputin
53:03into the girls
53:04bedrooms
53:05into the nursery
53:06allowing him
53:07to pray with them
53:08the relationship
53:10of the four Romanov
53:11sisters with Rasputin
53:12is interesting
53:13because they
53:14clearly followed
53:15the parents line
53:16they saw Grigori
53:18as they called him
53:19father Grigori
53:20as a wise owl
53:21a guru
53:22a teacher
53:22someone even
53:24as young teenage girls
53:25that they could
53:26confide in
53:26they wrote letters
53:28to him
53:28even asking
53:29his advice
53:30almost like
53:31an agony aunt
53:32they asked
53:32his advice
53:33about their teenage
53:34passions
53:35they trusted him
53:36implicitly
53:37with a kind of
53:38total unworldly
53:40innocence
53:41Alexandra had always
53:44fought to preserve
53:45her daughter's
53:45innocence
53:46but beneath
53:47their unruffled
53:48exteriors
53:48private passion
53:50seethed
53:51in December
53:521909
53:53the 14-year-old
53:55Olga was in the
53:56grip of one of
53:56her first teenage
53:57crushes
53:58on a man
53:59who was probably
54:00an officer
54:00in the imperial
54:01entourage
54:02she poured out
54:04her heart
54:05to Rasputin
54:06it's hard
54:07without you
54:08I have no one
54:09to turn to
54:09with my voice
54:10and there are
54:11so very many
54:12of them
54:13here is my torment
54:14Nikolai is
54:15driving me crazy
54:16I have only
54:17to go to
54:17the Sevilla
54:18cathedral
54:18and see him
54:19and could
54:20climb the wall
54:21my whole body
54:22shakes
54:22I love him
54:23I want to
54:24fling myself
54:25at him
54:26you advise
54:27me to be
54:27cautious
54:27but how can
54:28I be
54:29when I cannot
54:29control myself
54:31among their
54:33Romanov relations
54:34there was
54:35mounting concern
54:36about the exact
54:37nature of the
54:38relationship
54:39between four
54:40young and very
54:41innocent girls
54:42and Rasputin
54:43in March 1910
54:48Nikolai's mother
54:49and his two
54:50sisters
54:50heard that
54:51Rasputin
54:52had taken
54:53advantage
54:53of the two
54:55eldest sisters
54:56Olga
54:57and Tatiana
54:58within the
55:02wider Romanov
55:03family
55:04there is
55:04some horror
55:05over Rasputin
55:06and how close
55:07he appears
55:07to be
55:08to the family
55:08particularly
55:09to the two
55:10elder daughters
55:11there was
55:12an incident
55:13when their
55:14governess
55:15came to
55:16Nikolas
55:16and complained
55:17that Rasputin
55:19was actually
55:19in the
55:20bedroom
55:21of the
55:22girls
55:22saying good
55:23night to
55:23them
55:24Nikolas'
55:25mother was
55:26so concerned
55:26about her
55:27granddaughters
55:28and about
55:29the future
55:29of the
55:30Romanov line
55:31that she
55:31confided
55:32in the
55:32prime minister
55:33Vladimir
55:34Kokovstov
55:35my poor
55:35daughter-in-law
55:36is ruining
55:37the dynasty
55:38and herself
55:39she sincerely
55:40believes in
55:40the holiness
55:41of an adventurer
55:42and we're
55:43powerless to
55:44ward off
55:44the misfortune
55:45that is
55:45sure to
55:46come
55:46when people
55:47start to
55:48approach
55:48Nikolas and
55:49Alexandra
55:49with the
55:50rumors
55:50that they're
55:51hearing
55:51about
55:51Rasputin
55:52the reaction
55:53that both
55:54Nikolas and
55:54Alexandra
55:55give are
55:55this is our
55:56private life
55:57these are our
55:58private personal
55:59family matters
55:59and do not
56:00concern the
56:01state and do
56:01not concern
56:02the public
56:02and we will
56:03have no
56:03further
56:03conversation
56:04about it
56:05Rasputin
56:07dismissed all
56:08accusations of
56:09impropriety with
56:10the pithy
56:10riposte
56:11nobody fouls
56:12where they
56:13eat
56:13and there
56:15is no
56:16evidence that
56:16he was guilty
56:17of any
56:18abuse
56:18but with the
56:19family's private
56:20life so shrouded
56:21in mystery
56:22even the
56:23most outlandish
56:24rumors seemed
56:25all too
56:25plausible
56:26but in
56:291913
56:30the Russian
56:31public did
56:32enjoy a rare
56:33sighting of
56:34their reclusive
56:35royals
56:35that year's
56:36Romanov
56:37tercentenary
56:38demanded that
56:39the family
56:39show their
56:40faces at a
56:41series of
56:41grand state
56:42occasions
56:43for
56:44Nikolas and
56:45Alexandra
56:45the
56:46tercentenary
56:46seemed to
56:47confirm that
56:48their long
56:48absence from
56:49public view
56:50had left
56:50their popularity
56:51undimmed
56:52and the
56:53couple
56:54remained
56:54oblivious
56:55to the
56:55political
56:56storm
56:56threatening
56:57to
56:57engulf
56:57their
56:58family
56:58the
57:01remand
57:02of
57:02tercentenary
57:03of
57:031913
57:03was a
57:04huge
57:04propaganda
57:05operation
57:05and
57:07to a
57:07large
57:07extent
57:08Nikolas and
57:09Alexandra
57:09fell prey
57:10to their
57:11own
57:11propaganda
57:11they
57:12were
57:12extremely
57:13cut off
57:14from
57:14the
57:14political
57:14reality
57:15that
57:15is
57:15engulfing
57:16them
57:16there's
57:17a
57:17retreat
57:18from
57:18any
57:18idea
57:19of
57:19political
57:20reform
57:21nothing
57:22is
57:22done
57:22about
57:22Rasputin
57:23nothing
57:24is
57:24done
57:24to
57:25halt
57:25the
57:25drift
57:25towards
57:26revolution
57:26which
57:27everybody
57:27feels
57:28Alexander
57:29Block
57:30the great
57:30poet
57:31described
57:31living in
57:32Russia
57:32in 1913
57:33as like
57:33living
57:34on a
57:34volcano
57:35at the
57:37time
57:37none
57:38of the
57:38Romanov
57:39sisters
57:39would have
57:40realized
57:40it
57:41but this
57:42was a
57:42volcano
57:43that
57:43was about
57:43to erupt
57:44so violently
57:45that it
57:46would destroy
57:47all trace
57:48of the
57:48world
57:48they
57:49knew
57:49the
57:53second part
57:54of Russia's
57:54lost princesses
57:55will trace
57:56the girls
57:57lives
57:57through war
57:58and revolution
57:59it will reveal
58:00how Olga
58:01and Tatiana's
58:02war work
58:03finally gave
58:04them a taste
58:04of real life
58:05and real love
58:08beyond the
58:08palace gates
58:09and it will
58:12uncover the story
58:13of the sisters
58:13final days
58:14in exile
58:15in Siberia
58:16watching
58:17and waiting
58:18as the world
58:19closed in
58:19upon them
58:20present
58:22in
58:39and
58:40on
58:41the
58:43moon
Recommended
46:02
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